A
recent letter to the Libertarian Party (LP) News accused Ayn Rand of advocating
a “soulless” philosophy called Objectivism.This letter reflects the latest insult in a decades-long, hostile relationship
between Objectivists and Libertarians.The animosity originated in the 1960s with Ayn Rand’s exposure to
self-styled “anarchist” Libertarians like Murray Rothbard and his associates.Their open disregard for a proper
intellectual basis for liberty, as well as their contradictory ideas about what
liberty is, led Rand to condemn Libertarians as “hippies, who subordinate
reason to whims, and substitute anarchism for capitalism.”

The
question facing the Libertarian Party today is: Was Rand right?Is the LP doomed to long-term failure for
lack of a coherent argument for individual rights?The answer is an unequivocal YES.

It
is true that Libertarians assert the same political principle that Ayn Rand
summed as the essence of her politics: no individual may initiate physical
force against any other individual.But
this principle is neither an “axiom” nor a “self-evident truth”, despite
arguments to the contrary in David Boaz’s book LIBERTARIANISM: A PRIMER and elsewhere.

Ayn
Rand properly advocated a long chain of reasoning that led her from basic
axioms of reality (existence, consciousness, identity), through the necessity
of reason as the individual’s only means of survival, to the ethic of
individual human life as an end in itself, to the inevitable conclusion that
laissez-faire capitalism is the only moral social system.

Notice
that this line of reasoning derives the “non-aggression” principle
objectively.It accepts that a
“this-worldly” life is good, and that reason is the method of obtaining and keeping
that good.Each person must be left
free to follow his own reasoning without interference from the government.

Is
this chain of argument present anywhere in the LP literature?Alas, it is completely absent.Nowhere in either the LP Statement of Principles
or the LP Platform is there offered an objective basis for why individuals
should have the right to life, liberty or property.Such rights are simply asserted without basis—a purely subjective
argument for rights.

Subjective
claims of “individual rights”, being baseless, stand no chance of winning over
a culture already steeped in subjective, anti-individualist ideologies like
racism, statism and radical environmentalism.It should come as no surprise that outsiders humorously refer to
Libertarians as “Republicans campaigning for prostitution”.The concept of Libertarianism is that of
doing whatever one pleases without interference from government.For the average voter, this immediately
conjures up images of wild pot parties, orgies and other largely destructive
behaviors.Omitted from the picture are
heroic acts of rational achievement and productive success that generate all
the benefits of our modern world.

The
philosophy of Objectivism, far from being “soulless”, actually values the
concept of “soul” very highly--so much, in fact, that Objectivists are
unwilling to sell their souls at any price.Because so many others are, they misconceive Objectivists as beings
without souls.Unlike virtually every
religious and political leader today, Objectivists have the courage to stand up
and say, out loud, “Altruism is wrong.Self-sacrifice is a perversion.”

Even
if Libertarians make a few incremental gains in politics, they are doomed
long-term because of their utter absence of a rational, moral defense of
individual rights.Their success will
collapse with the first breeze of public whim.What our culture needs is a second Renaissance—a widely renewed respect
for reason and earthly achievement.

Liberty
is not license, and the vision of a nation filled with pimps, prostitutes, drug
addicts and Don Juans will not inspire any sane person.However, the vision of a world filled with
rational, healthy, productive people who trade freely with others of similar character
WILL.Such refreshing characters, role
models for us all, populate the pages of Ayn Rand’s magnificent novels and
explain their continued strong sales decades after their first printings.

Some
readers may doubt the effectiveness of Objectivism as a working philosophy for
large organizations.Look no further
than the banking giant BB&T to remove all doubt.That company has established Objectivism as its official
corporate philosophy, and its success as an organization continues to
grow.Read all about it at http://www.bbandt.com/philosophy/.

If
Objectivism is good enough to drive the success of a multi-billion dollar
financial firm, should it not also be good enough to drive the success of a
multi-million dollar political party?Think about it.

In
conclusion: The LP will sputter and fail without a rational basis for its
arguments.What the LP needs is to make
a clean break with its checkered, subjective past and become reborn into a
spotless, objective advocate for fully grounded individual liberty.Objectivism offers a set of inspiring,
fulfilling and spiritual principles: reality, reason, self-growth,
laissez-faire capitalism and productive work as a spiritual activity.If the LP wants to succeed and thrive as a
viable political force, these principles need to become the explicit foundation
of the LP’s message.